Angels Tread Where Fools Fear to Dare


-- 150,000 Angels Ignore Critics and Fund Award-Winning Winemaker to Make Delicious Pinot Grigio --

American Wine Drinkers Confirm Pinot Grigio Can Actually be Good

NAPA, Calif., Feb. 26, 2013 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- NakedWines.com, a customer-funded winery, has united over 150,000 Angels to invest $150,000 to help winemaker Tim Olson realize his dream of making the best Pinot Grigio this side of Piedmont. Over the last 21 years, Tim has been making wine for some of the best wineries in California. The marketing departments at his previous employers would never let him make a Pinot Grigio because they regarded it as cheap and unsellable. He approached the NakedWines.com Angels with the crazy idea of making a top-notch Napa Valley Pinot Grigio and they agreed to fund it.

Tim says, "Working with a company like NakedWines.com is a breath of fresh air in this sometimes stuffy wine industry. If I brought up the word Pinot Grigio in my past everyone in the room would of have looked at me like I said a bad word. Now I'm getting the chance to make a wine I've always wanted to make because the people drinking it are the ones funding it!"

Funded by cutting costs you can't taste

Since Tim's wine is crowdfunded by his customers, there are no marketing or sales costs. This allows the NakedWines.com Angels to invest heavily in grapes and talent, without wasting money on things they can't taste.

Crowdfunded wine available now

Tim's customer-funded Pinot Grigio is available exclusively to NakedWines.com customers as of February 15, 2013.

Website: http://us.nakedwines.com

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/nakedwinescom

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/nakedwinesdotcom

Contact Details: adam.reiter@nakedwines.com / 707-723-4762

NOTES ON NAKED WINES

What we're all about

Naked Wines, was born in December 2008 when twelve friends quit their jobs in the middle of the recession to do things a little differently.

Our goal: Find the world's most talented, undiscovered winemakers and set them up in business.

How we go about it:

  • 150,000 customers invest over $4 million dollars a month towards future orders (we call them 'Angels')
  • Which we use to fund independent winemakers
  • In return for exclusive wines at wholesale prices
  • Which we pass back to our customers

We call it the 'virtuous circle', as everybody gets more for less, without trampling on anyone along the way.

The hard and fast facts

If you're looking for something a little meatier, this should help:

  • We've invested in 105 independent winemakers to date
  • We lease the former Blackstone winery in Kenwood to use as a winemaking studio for all our independent winemakers
  • We've seen over 100% growth year-on-year, with sales of $40 million in 2011
  • We've recruited 200k customers, 100k of which invest over $3 million dollars a month towards future orders
  • We were named the UK's most innovative wine company for two years on the trot, at the IWC
  • We were named the UK's Online Business of the Year at the 2011 National Business Awards
  • And we're probably the world's largest group of net wine investors

A truly social business

As well as the model itself, the website delivers a truly social experience.

  • Customers can chat directly to one another and to the winemakers.
  • Customers can vote with their feet on new initiatives and wines, to decide what makes the cut.
  • And we can suggest to customers what to buy AND what not to buy, based on their preferences.

The team

The man at the top is Rowan Gormley, former Virgin Wines and Virgin Money CEO, and our non-executive director who keeps us in check is Ian West, former BSkyB MD. The rest of us are an assorted bunch of 30 wine and tech-loving employees based in Napa.

The NakedWines.com, Inc. logo is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/newsroom/prs/?pkgid=17315


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